Bingo
by the rabid plot bunny
Summary: He smiled to himself. Temari fascinated Shikamaru. She was full of surprises, and just got more interesting all the time. People would talk, his friends would tease, and he and Temari would continue to be more or less discrete, but with diplomatic tensions between their nations, distrust begins to take hold. ShikaTema / ShikamaruxTemari. Slight AU.
1. Storm

Hey all. So this is my first real attempt at a ShikaTema fic. After voraciously reading probably every ShikaTema fic in existence, I decided that I should probably give it a shot and actually contribute something for once to the wealth of lovely fics about my favorite pairing of all time. I drafted the first few chapters of this a long long time ago, but hoped to wrap up before posting. I figured I'd get this out there though anyway, maybe that will motivate me to carry on.

Slight AU, just as a heads up – I'm imagining in this that Rasa, the sand sibs' dad, didn't get assassinated by Orochimaru in the chunin exams arc and is still Kazekage. So while Orochimaru did attack Konoha, Suna wasn't involved, at least not in a way that Leaf found out about. Why, you may very well ask, would I make this minor but weird change? Gaara's no warmonger, but his dad definitely is, which adds some edge to Suna-Konoha relations, and who doesn't love the potential for more angst between our star-crossed lovers, don't you think? ;)

0

"A room for one please, just for the night," Temari said, smiling at the woman at the front desk. She had cloaked her chakra a few kilometers before even reaching the village, not that anyone would notice a foreign shinobi's chakra anyway. The civilian village was a resort town known for its hot springs, though it was rather sleepy as the crowds dwindled during the rainy season. The young woman at the front desk seemed quite happy to see a client come in, and immediately started fussing over her, insisting that she have dinner brought up to her room before she went to the hot springs.

She allowed the woman to show her around the inn and the bathing area, before leaving Temari at her room with fresh towels and a plain yukata to wear to the baths. Normally Temari wasn't one for luxury, but she had been out in the field for almost a month and a long soak in the hot pools sounded like just what she needed. And in any case, she was supposed to be passing as a civilian visitor, so it fit with her cover in any case.

She sighed as she allowed herself to sink into the waters, dunking her head underneath the surface before coming up for a breath. She took out her hair ties and tried to run her fingers through her locks, but found that it had become too matted and stuck stubbornly in its four bunches even without the ties. Well, that was a problem she would deal with after her mission.

She had been incognito in Iwa for weeks now, traveling covertly up and down the coast since the beginning of their rainy season. She was just relieved that her extended solo mission was almost over. The heat of the water soothing her sore muscles was reminding her just how exhausted she really was.

'Just two more…' she thought to herself, thinking of her final targets. She laid her head back against the edge of the pool, staring up into the dark clouds, allowing her brow to furrow. It wouldn't do if the storm started tonight. She needed a good night's sleep if she was going to do this right. Soldier pills and chakra powder can only get you so far, and she wanted to save the meager remains of her stash for a real emergency.

The inn was almost empty. The rainy season had been particularly bad this year, which had scared off any off-season tourists that might have stopped along the coast. Not to mention that not many people in this region of Iwa had much disposable income nowadays. She smirked to herself. The mission was going well.

Her father, the Kazekage had been getting more ambitious the past few years. Ever since Konoha had lowered their rates back when she was still a genin, Suna's economy had suffered, and she knew her father would do anything for the Sand to hold onto it's prestige and reputation. Her brow furrowed as she thought of the chunin exams she had attended in Konoha. She knew for a fact that her father had considered entering an agreement with a missing-nin to attack the village. He had only pulled out last minute when Orochimaru made on his life. Ever since that time he had become even more suspicious, and unwilling to enter into alliances or rely on anyone outside of his inner circle. They had maintained a formal alliance with Konoha, but he lacked any trust in the Leaf. He cooperated with them the utter minimum amount necessary to avoid provoking further distrust of the Hokage.

After the exams, he had worked his children even harder than before. They were his weapons, the only ones that he felt he could rely on. She was proud to serve her father and her village, but she hated these missions he sent her on. She liked to face her enemy head on. It was much more honorable to defeat someone in battle than it was what she was doing. She scoffed to herself. She didn't feel like a shinobi on these missions. She was more like a walking disaster. A human hurricane.

Resting her head against the edge of the pool she stared up at the sky. So gray. She missed the clear skies of Suna.

It was a well-kept secret that Suna had a long tradition of wind-users manipulating the weather as a battle strategy. The desert surrounding Suna had a reputation for it's extreme sand storms that could strike in any season, but outsiders to the village were unaware that these were actually quite rare natural occurrence, and that more often than not, they were stirred up by sand-nin as a way of delaying and weakening any unwanted visitors on their way towards the village.

Temari had initially viewed this as underhanded, but as she grew up she overcame her young idealism. Battles were not won head on with adversaries at full strength. Battles were won behind closed doors in the council chambers, and silently in the dead of night by black ops taking out a sleeping victim. She was still frustrated by the extreme lengths her father, the Kazekage went to manipulate the field in his favor. She longed for a high profile mission, or even just to serve as a bodyguard by her father's side as she used to. Those were honorable missions, but because of her natural affinity for high power wind jutsu, she got the dirty work.

He saved the high profile missions for her brothers, she knew, because he wanted them to succeed him to the position of Kazekage. Everyone knew that Gaara, the sand's ultimate weapon was next in line, but that if anything were to ever happen to him—as if that was even possible, given the strength of his defenses—that Kankuro would take over. Over the past few years, their father had made it clear to Temari that he no longer considered her to be in the running. Just thinking about it she felt the resentment and anger boil up inside her. She had more raw power than Kankuro by far, and her chakra control was almost on par with his—it would have been just as good if she had undergone the specialized training that he had to manipulate his puppets.

Both her brothers were probably out on A-rank missions right now, but here she was, in another backwater village, on an unranked, unofficial mission. Only top councilmembers and her father even knew she was here, and there were no written records of her presence. She had been sent out of the village weeks ago on a B-rank escort mission for a merchant, but her file would not account for her extended absence from the village. It wasn't uncommon for mission records to be sealed, as many black ops nin had extensive blank periods in their files, but anyone remotely connected among Suna nin would know that she wasn't on black ops. If anyone ever bothered to give her record these past few months a look, it would be fishy at best.

She dunked her head under the water again, bubbles rising from the pool as she exhaled slowly. She hated overthinking things. She was a shinobi of the Sand, and if this was the way that the Kazekage chose to use her abilities, she would carry out his orders faithfully and without question until she died. Coming back to the surface she pushed her hair out of her face and exited the pool. The sky was darkening and she wanted to be well rested by the time the storm broke.

"Storm's coming in tonight" Temari overheard the staff in the lobby talking amongst themselves as she made her way up to her room.

"It's supposed to hit worst to the north, so we'll be fine."

Temari paused just around the corner at the base of the stairwell to listen.

"I know… but it's just been such a bad hurricane season this year… did you hear what happened last week in that resort town on the border? Meteorologists weren't even classifying that as a tropical storm but it did more damage than the worst hurricane the village has seen in a decade. High winds and flooding did a ton of damage. It's going to be a long recovery for them. I don't trust the weather service anymore, they've just underestimated every storm this year so badly."

Temari smirked to herself and headed up the stairs. She had really done some fine work last week.

0

In the early hours of the morning, she woke to the sound of rain pounding against her window.

"Crap!" she cursed herself as she flew into action. She wasn't sure how long the rain had been pounding but she was losing precious time. She pulled on her black hooded cloak, and quickly unsealed her tessen from the scroll in her pack. She threw the windows open and darted off into the night.

She had already staked out the geography of the village, and immediately climbed to the highest point in the city, a rooftop near the center of town. She almost felt bad for the small town as she surveyed it from above. Almost. A grin spread across her face as she pulled down her hood, exposing her face to the rain, and started to gather chakra, feeling it flow and concentrate in her tessen. With a yell, she released a gale of winds down at the town. A few more sweeps of her fan, and chakra charged winds soared through the village. She smirked to herself as she heard window shattering nearby.

After a few minutes of stoking the storm from her perch, she pulled her hood back up and folded up her tessen, panting from the huge amounts of chakra she'd used up creating the sustained strong winds now spiraling through the town. She hopped to the nearest power line, and using her fan like a bat, swung with all her force at the transformer attached there. Sparks flew as her fan smashed into the device, knocking it clear off the pole and severing the power lines connected to it. She gave out a contented sigh as she watched lights flicker out in the surrounding buildings.

Moving on to another sector of the town, she wielded her metal fan like a sledgehammer, shattering windows that had withstood the high winds. She unfurled her fan yet again and with a few apathetic swings she knocked over some trees, which went crashing into the roofs of a nearby house. The residents within began to yell, lighting lanterns, but she had moved on before they could come outside to examine what had happened. A few downed power lines and crushed roofs later she climbed back up to her perch to look back down at her handiwork. Power out village-wide: check. Trees downed: check. Storm drains clogged: check. All she had left to do was to break a few water mains and take out the main radio tower and the damage would be done.

By dawn she would be miles away and the residents of the village would be shaking their fists at the sky, cursing the bad weather for their misfortune. There was no way they'd be able to fully repair their damaged infrastructure given the economic strain already afflicting Iwa. Those poor farmers had had such bad flooding this year as well… Lucky for Suna their formal trade agreement with Iwa had been dissolved last year, they were no longer beholden to the stone nation and wouldn't be compelled to send any aid unless the Tschikage could offer them something to make it worth their while.

0

Two weeks later, Temari found herself back in Suna. She had barely slept in her run back to the village. The rainy season had initially enchanted her—rain was a very rare occurrence in Suna and as a child it was almost magical to her to run outside to play in the rain, but Temari had been almost perpetually soaked to the bone for weeks and she craved the familiar dry heat of her home.

She arrived late at night and though she knew she should report, she didn't give a damn. There was no official record of her mission anyway, so it's not like she was officially breaking protocol anyway. Not to mention that even if she did break protocol, that wouldn't change her standing with the Kazekage anyway. No one else was capable or trusted enough by her father to carry out these missions.

She was loyal to her father to a fault, but that didn't mean she had to pretend she didn't hate these missions, so if he wanted to scold her about her lack of decorum on her return, she would take his slap on the wrist and get on with her business.

She dropped her pack on the floor, changed out of her filthy clothes, and collapsed into her bed without even showering first. The maids would change her sheets anyway once they realized she was back, so she was less than concerned about getting some mud on them.

0

"Oy, Temari!" Temari groaned as she heard her brother pounding on her door, "Dad's asking for you and he seems pissed. You'd better get your ass out of bed, it's almost noon!"

She wanted to ignore him, but he kept pounding, so she rolled out of bed and walked over to the door, cracking it open and shooting her brother a glare.

"The Kazekage, pissed off?" She said, sarcasm dripping from her voice, "That's never happened before, I'd better scurry off to apologize."

Temari let her brother into her room and he sat down as she tugged at her matted hair with a brush.

"He says you didn't report," Kankuro continued, "Where have you been anyway?"

He poked at the mud-caked cloak she had dropped on the floor the night prior and shot her a mocking look that said 'you are a complete mess.'

"Mission," Temari deadpanned back at him.

"Yeah, idiot, I figured," he scowled at her, "How was it?"

"Fine."

She didn't want to talk about it. She used to love talking about missions with her brothers, but ever since her father had started using her for clandestine work, she had become resentful. Her brothers had high-profile mission after high-profile mission and she was left to stir up shit in rice paddies and sabotage infrastructure in whatever nation had most recently pissed off the Kazekage. "Economic retribution," or "political maneuvering" he often called it, though she figured that "environmental terrorism" was also fitting.

"Tch, whatever" he responded, getting the message that she didn't want to talk and getting up to leave the room, "just get your ass over to his office ASAP or he's gonna be on my case too."

She smirked to herself as she stepped into the shower for a _long_ soak. The Kazekage could wait.


	2. Foliage

Temari sat in the shade on the terrace polishing her fan. The pervasive afternoon heat was inescapable, even in the shade. A smile tugged at the edges of Temari's lips as she felt the sweat beading on her skin. It was good to be home. She could feel the lingering chill from the weeks she had spent in almost constant rain finally leaving her body as the heat seeped back in. On her solo mission, she hadn't had the time or the energy to worry about feeling cold, and it wasn't until she had crossed Suna's border and the sun started rising in the desert as she traveled that she realized how much she had missed her home climate. She felt like she could just lie back and soak up the heat for the rest of the afternoon. Letting out a contented sigh, she let her eyes drift shut and her head rest against the wall behind her, her fan resting in her lap.

She felt a familiar chakra presence approaching but didn't bother to move. She didn't like people to catch her relaxing—she wasn't lazy after all, and didn't want anyone to think it—but the first day home after a long mission felt like a good day to make an exception.

"So I hear you're off to Konoha again," Kankuro sat down beside her.

Temari hummed in the affirmative, before straightening and turning her attention back to her fan.

The silence between them was comfortable. She enjoyed the company of her brothers and missed them when she was away on solo missions. Kankuro in particularly had been a constant presence in her young life, and though her relationship with Gaara got off to a rocky start, since the chunin exams a few years back they had grown closer. Her father felt like the Kazekage, but her brothers just felt like family.

Kankuro was also recently back from a mission, and after a while he launched into a play by play of an encounter with some bandits that had been unfortunate enough to try to rob the caravan the Sand-nin had been protecting. The heat and the feeling of being home had put her in a much better mood and she enjoyed hearing him talk about his mission. As frustrated as she was that she hadn't been getting any combat missions lately, she knew it wasn't her brother's fault and was glad that he was enjoying his work.

Finally coming to the end of his tale, he started started asking her about her latest mission. She was prepared for this turn in the conversation but still didn't really want to talk about it, giving short, vague answers to his question.

"And why exactly did that all take you, what was it… a month? Two?"

Temari felt the heat rise, and hoped that she wasn't blushing. She knew it was an innocent question but she couldn't help to hear it as an accusation of her incompetence. Given the official mission parameters on record, it probably either looked like she was either slacking, incompetent, or up to something, for it to have taken her so long.

"Well, the official timeline in the mission scroll was definitely overly optimistic, but you know how those things go…" she trailed off, wondering how much more detail her brother would ask for before he was satisfied with her response. She didn't like lying to her brother but also didn't really want him involved in what she knew would be viewed as an act of war if it ever came to light.

"… just wanted to do it right, tie up all the loose ends, you know?"

Kankuro didn't press any further. He knew that their father had been giving Temari a lot of low-profile long term missions recently, and he wasn't really sure of what to make of it. Other than her Konoha gig. That he understood 100%. She was by far the best suited among them to liaise with the Leaf-nin given her brains and her appreciation for inter-village cooperation. She could really pack a punch if you pissed her off, but she was always the most diplomatic of their small family.

"You know I've been thinking," Temari ran her hand along the edge of her fan, "What if I incorporated a sharpened edge to my tessen?"

Kankuro raised an eyebrow at her.

"I mean, that would be awesome, but when have you ever used your fan as a contact weapon in the first place?"

Temari frowned at this; it's true she didn't use her fan as a contact weapon when fighting other ninja, however…. She had found the metal fan useful as a blunt force tool occasionally, especially in her recent missions. He, of course, had never seen her in that situation. She let a smirk come to her face.

"Who said it was for contact? Maybe I'm just gonna sever your stupid little puppet strings the next time we spar, so watch out!"

They launched back into a friendly banter.

Later that evening, after a spar with her brother, she lay in her bed mentally preparing herself for the journey to Konoha.

A few rooms over, Kankuro was still thinking through their spar. He did start to see that maybe his evaluation of her fighting style was a bit outdated. When had she gotten so… Reckless? Confident? He wasn't sure what it was about her style, maybe she was just frustrated and needed to blow off some more steam than usual. She was stronger though as well, he could feel the huge potential of her chakra as she channeled it through the winds with her tessen, even though they had both been holding back (going all-out in a friendly spar was something they had both stopped doing as children, or at least started doing much more thoughtfully—if the chunin exams had taught them anything it was that an attack could come at any time, and chakra wasted wouldn't automatically replenish itself if you had been dicking around when an enemy struck). He wished that their father took her more seriously—there was some serious destructive power in her jutsu.

Temari fell into a fitful sleep. It was always hard for her to really relax into sleep, even at home, after these long solo missions. Having no one to keep watch just meant that you had to sleep with one eye open, so to speak. She always felt the edges of consciousness, never drifting to far from wakefulness. Often, she would jolt awake in the middle of the night, startled by real or imagined sounds and shadows that drifted through the night. It was no use getting to comfortable, she was off to Konoha soon anyway, and no matter how many friends she had in the village, she would always keep her guard up when she was there.

0

Shikamaru stared up at the clouds drifting above him and sighed.

Shikamaru lay supine in the bed, his arms behind his head, and allowed his eyes to wander through the room. The ceiling was a bore to stare at but he was too lazy to go outside. He just wanted to lay there in the bed, he didn't get why Temari was always rushing off as soon as the day broke. He would've almost been offended if he didn't know that it was a Suna-nin thing, not any particular problem she had with him, with them.

Or maybe she did have a problem with what was going on between the two of them. He sighed. For such an open person, she was surprisingly hard to read when it came to interpersonal relationships. She was brutally honest to a fault, but her dry humor and tough girl demeanor also hid something else that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Girls were supposed to be overly emotionally complicated about sex, but this was Temari after all, she was anything but the typical girl, and if she was feeling bashful about the sex, he doubted she would keep coming to his bed. She, of course, was always the initiator, it seemed. She was in the window after dark, out the window when the birds started chirping, and all sass in between.

He rolled onto his side to stretch and let out a yawn, scrunching his eyes closed before letting them flutter open again. When did it get so bright out?

Maybe he was overthinking things. That was pretty much the norm for the lazy genius. But as much as he liked Temari, he felt that somehow there was more distance between them then there had ever been. Regardless of the fact that somehow they had transitioned from allies and occasional teammates to… whatever they were now. The confidence that she exuded so constantly had stopped ringing true recently—like it had ceased to be a genuine expression of strength and pride and has started to be a mask that she wore to protect herself. Or to hide herself. He wasn't sure.

His eyes landed on the pack of her things that she had left at the side of the bed. Peeking out from the top he could see what looked like a bingo book, the pages wrinkled and worn. Rolling over once again so that he could grab it, he pulled it out to look at the cover.

Bingo. Suna-style. He always loved getting a look at other nations' bingo books.

As a general rule, bingo books were always full of missing-nin (or in overt wartimes, the high ranking nin from an enemy nation), but there were subtle variations in the books that revealed the more nuanced political bents of each country. Some nations listed their own missing nin prominently, indicating shame at the defection of their own ranks, and others omitted their own, out of denial perhaps. The inclusions or omissions of certain missing-nin could say a lot. These differences were arguably just an indication of nations' political priorities. However, they could also tip off shady deals between politicians and missing-nin or secret alliances between nations. They could even be a prelude to declarations of war.

Konoha's most recently issued bingo book was a good example of this. The top-priority missing-nin listed were almost all Sound-nin, missing-nin expected to have defected to the Sound, and missing-nin whose last known whereabouts were within or near the borders of the Sound. Chasing missing-nin was a good excuse for being caught within another nation's borders without authorization. While the Sound would surely not tolerate this encroachment, at least in the eyes of the international community would view the Leaf's actions as justified. It was no secret that the Sound and the Leaf were at odds with one another, and a single look at the bingo book made that exceedingly obvious.

The Kazekage was never very good a hiding his political bent… The last Suna bingo book Shikamaru had seen had been a few years out of date, but was full of Iwa-nin. Even the most low-level petty criminals had been listed, as if even the most insignificant rogue rock-nin meritted the trouble of being taken out. Shikamaru was surprised that man hadn't already declared war on Iwa, there had been so much tension between the nations that last few years. Iwas would barely stand a chance given the horrible hurricane season they'd had that had devastated their crops and local economies on the coast.

Opening the book, he half expected it to be full of just Iwa nin. What he didn't expect was for a dried flower to slip out the first page he turned. Surprised, he carefully picked up the flower—a small yellow blossom on a slender stem. He flipped over onto his stomach and set the book down flat on the bed in front of him as he lay the flower back on the page. He raised an eyebrow and turned a few more pages, only to find another, faded and pressed blossom, a different variety, between the pages. So that's why the pages were so crinkled, he thought to himself, they've been soaking up all the moisture from these plants.

He took a close look at the flower. He didn't recognize it and was sure it was not found in Fire.

He turned more pages, carefully, not to disturb the delicate pressed plants within, fascinated with the contents of the unassuming book. He'd had a hunch Temari had a thing for botany—he knew that whenever she wasn't completely busy working or training in Konoha she would often stop by the Yamanaka flower shop. Not just to buy any old thing; she would ask about what they had in stock, what was in season, where things came from, how they grew, what they symbolized. That's how she had ended up friends with Ino, even despite the deep-seated grudge Ino had initially held against the Sand-nin and her brothers long after the chunin exams. He didn't realize that she went around collecting flowers though. And a bingo book seemed like a bizarre place to store them.

As he flipped, he found strange leaves, some recognizable teas, though their scents were too muddled and musty for him to distinguish them for sure, due to having been dried in such close proximity to so many other varieties. He wondered where she had gotten them. Had she accumulated them through her travels over many missions? Were any of them cuttings from the Yamanaka shop? Were any native to Suna, or were these her way of cataloguing the wetter, more temperate places she visited? How did she pick which plants she would keep here in these pages? He suddenly wished he had paid more attention to Ino's occasional flower ramblings. He wanted to know where these plants were from, what they were used for, what they meant.

Turning another page, a particularly delicate bloom crumbled as he peeled the page back.

"Shit," he mumbled to himself, putting as much of the plant-fragments off the sheets back onto the page as he could before closing the book and tucking it back into her bag.

The sun had slipped behind some clouds, reducing the glare in the room, and he smiled to himself. Temari fascinated Shikamaru. She was full of surprises, and just got more interesting all the time.


	3. Gossip

Ino looked up from her magazine when she heard the bell of the door jingle, and was about to give a standard shopkeepers' greeting when she realized that pineapple head had just walked through the door.

"What, do they need an extra hand at the hospital or something? Or is Tsunade sending us on another mission?" she couldn't even remember the last time he had shown up at the shop. It was probably back when they were genin and the team would sometimes stop by to pick her up from her parents' store on their way out for missions.

"Not today," he responded simply, staring intently at some decorative foliage in a vase on one of their shelves.

Ino waited for him to elaborate, or to announce why he had suddenly decided to show up here, but to her disappointment he didn't say anything at all. He continued to glare at the plants, walking past the main shelf to the corner of the shop, crouching down to look at something outside of her range of vision from her seat at the counter.

"So… what brings you to the store then?"

"What are these called?" he asked absentmindedly, after a pause. She scowled at him for completely ignoring her, and she came out from behind the counter, in part to get a better look at the flowers he had asked about, and in part to thwack him over the head for his rudeness, but when she saw what he had been looking at, she paused. It was a bunch of wildflowers, not the type that would be the centerpiece of a bouquet, but small accents that would add fullness and character to an arrangement.

"Those are Snapdragons," Ino said, wondering why and how Shikamaru had suddenly taken an interest in flowers after so many years. His eyes used to glaze over at the first mention of them, but now she could see the sharpness in his gaze that she knew meant that the gears in his brain were turning. "They symbolize grace and strength. We normally get them from the southern coast of Iwa, but we've started cultivating them in our greenhouse. Our suppliers' field got totally wiped out this year."

Shikamaru took a sprig of them out of the vase and brought it up to his nose, breathing in the scent with the same concentrated look.

"You know, if those are for some girl, you'd better pick something else, because they also symbolize deception," Ino crossed her arms and raised a brow at her friend.

"Tch," Shikamaru scoffed, placing the flowers back in the vase and rising to his feet "Why would I be buying flowers for a girl? Seems much too troublesome."

With that, he made for the door at the same lazy pace he entered.

"See you later, Ino."

She almost followed him out, wanting to question him about his strange behavior, but she refrained. When Shikamaru didn't want to talk, he didn't talk. She'd have more luck beating it out of him in their next training session. She smiled to herself and went back to her magazine. Maybe there was some girl, she thought to herself. If there was, she'd figure it out sooner than later, she smirked to herself. She wasn't the daughter of the head of Konoha's intelligence division for nothing. Some may call her a gossip, but she made everything that went on in this town her business and nothing got past her.

0

The next time he found Temari in his bed she was stopping by the village on her way back home from a mission. He wasn't sure what the mission had been and didn't ask—as close as they were, and as often as they worked on joint missions as allies, the Sand's business was the Sand's business. The last thing he wanted was Temari pulling away because she felt he was fishing for information on Suna's movements. He wasn't blind though, and he could tell it had been a long one. She never traveled with more than the bare essentials but her pack was just a bit bulkier than usual, and her clothes, though untorn, were a bit worse for wear, and dustier than he knew was possible.

Of course, he got them off of her as quickly as possible. He ran his hands across her skin, which to his relief was unmarred. Must have been a non-combat mission, he thought to himself, unable to keep the gears from turning in his head even as he felt his arousal build. Diplomatic maybe? No, it couldn't be. Suna didn't have close enough ties to send her solo to any nation other than the Leaf. Recon then? Must have been either that or an astoundingly uneventful mission guarding someone or other, but even then she'd probably have been with a team. Since when did she work in Intelligence? His mind was pulled back to the present moment when he felt her press her body against his, the soft curves of her breasts brushing against his chest.

He never had understood how she kept her skin so smooth, he marveled as he traced the curve of her neck, pulling her face towards his and bringing her into a kiss. Grasping her hip he let out a low moan as he felt her hand slide up his shirt, the rough callouses of her hands ghosting across his abdomen. He acquiesced to her unspoken request and pulled his shirt off overhead. Pushing her down onto the bed he felt his arousal grow as he looked at her splayed on top of the sheets, sun-kissed, hair a mess, dirt under her fingernails as she reached up to pull him back down towards her impatiently. Irresistible.

He almost smirked at her haste. They were so different—she so fast and he so slow. It wasn't the first time that he found himself wondering if she'd ever let him make love to her slowly and gently, or if she'd always demand that he keep pace with her. She fucked like she fought—every moment full of intensity. He could almost feel her aching for them both to finish already, and wondered why she was always in such a rush. It's not like he was going anywhere anytime soon when he had her in his bed.

Much sooner than he would have liked, Shikamaru came to the peak of pleasure, groaning into the crook of her neck. He heard Temari's breath hitch as she rode out the waves of her orgasm. His heart pounded in his chest from the exertion and the pleasure, and he made an effort to slow his breath, his face pressed into her wild hair. She smelled of the musk of the Konoha forests she had been traveling through, and where she must have camped the night before. The earthy smell mingled with the smell of sex. He held her tightly, breathing in her scent. The last thing he wanted was to let her go, but she soon pulled away, making her way into his bathroom, and he heard the shower start to run.

He let his post-orgasm drowsiness pull him towards sleep, and was only half awake when she climbed back into the bed, the smell of musk and exertion washed away. The faint smell of jasmine was the last sensation on the edge of his awareness as he let sleep take him.

He woke in the mid morning, to find the bed cold next to him. Her pack gone from where she had dumped it at the foot of the bed, but the light floral scent of her shampoo still lingered on the sheets.

0

Ino's face lit up with a mischevious smile as Shikamaru entered the shop. He had continued to show up sporadically, asking about seemingly the most random plants and evading any prodding questions she would pose. Normally, any guy who walked into the shop was looking for a romantic gift for some girl they were chasing, but they would just get a dozen roses and call it a day, not ponder over cornflowers and hesperia and then leave empty handed. It had thrown her for a loop initially, but as soon as she figured it out she had felt like a total idiot, it was so obvious.

Last week, Temari had been in town on chunin exam business, and the moment she had walked into the shop it all clicked in Ino's mind. Ino had almost laughed out loud, she had been overthinking it so much that the obvious answer had evaded her. She had worked the Konoha grapevine to dig up any new gossip about hookups and dating, but hadn't found anything other than of course, the ever-present general perception that he and Temari were an item. This was such old news that she had immediately written it off. That rumor started when they were all twelve and still genin, and had persisted through their chunin years when he served as her escort during all her visits to the village. She wondered when the teasing had become justified. It couldn't have been all that long ago she reasoned. Shikamaru was much too lazy to keep such juicy gossip material under wraps for very long.

Temari loved the flower shop, and always stopped by at least once when she was in the village for a few days. Ino admired the way that Temari's eyes would light up at the simplest things. Suna's climate was not forgiving, and it seemed that Temari looked upon all these delicate blooms as small miracles. She loved wildflowers the most, and would often buy just a few—a small enough bunch that she could discretely stow in her bag, her tough exterior impeding her from walking down the street with a bouquet.

"Shikamaru" she said in a singsong voice as he crossed the threshold, "You know, I finally figured out what you are looking for."

"I'm not looking for anything, Ino, just looking."

"Mhm, of course you are," she said, getting up from her spot behind the counter, snipping a small cutting from a vase, and handing it to her teammate. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Irises. This variety only grows in the foothills on the borderlands between Fire and Earth country. She saw some on her way back from a mission a few weeks back and was wondering what they were called. Seems to like them."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Shikamaru said, but Ino could see the color coming to his cheeks and any remaining doubt she had had about her theory instantly vanished. He made to hand the small blooms back to her, but she shook her head.

"On the house! Think of it as a gift to a loyal customer—and by that I mean Temari not you, of course."

Shikamaru tried to shoot her a glare, but just made her laugh, his face lit up bright red.

"It's about time, you know! We're all happy for you!" Ino called after him as he left the shop, certain she heard him mumble something about "troublesome blondes" as he exited.

Shikamaru sighed as he left the shop. Of course Ino would be digging around in his personal business. It was unavoidable, and as much of a pain as it was, it's not like the whole village hadn't already been buzzing about his and Temari's supposed relationship for years already. People would talk, his friends would tease, and he and Temari would continue to be more or less discrete. It was just their style. The style of most ninja, really, who didn't want to go around wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

Heading back to his apartment, he couldn't help but wonder whether Temari was carrying an iris pressed between the pages of her bingo book. How did she decide what to archive there? He wanted to crack her code, he realized. She was the most complicated puzzle he'd ever come across and the every time she spent a night in his bed he felt his need to know her grow. Know her deeply. Know about her hardest missions, the first time she killed, what she dreamed about or whether it was all just nightmares. And the stupid stuff too, he wanted to know what she ate for breakfast in the mornings, what her quirks were. He wanted to know if she ever wished that she could keep her own garden, daydreamed about a home in a more temperate climate and a job that didn't keep her traveling more often than not.

Back at his apartment, he put the flower in a small glass of water on his bedside table. He wasn't sure when she'd be back again or how long it would take the iris to wither, but maybe it would make her smile to see it there.

0

Shikamaru was in the shower washing away the grime of his latest mission when he felt a familiar chakra signature enter his room. It had been almost a month since she had last been in town. He stepped out from the steaming bathroom into his bedroom, a cool breeze drifting through the open window. Temari was lying on his bed, arms crossed.

"Ever heard of knocking?" He asked her, tightening the towel slung low on his hips and toweling his hair dry.

"Ever heard of setting traps?" She shot back, "Your apartment is laughably easy to get into. Honestly, how are you not already dead?"

"Dying sounds much too troublesome," Shikamaru sat down on the bed next to her.

"Hah!" Temari let out a laugh, "This coming from the man that I had to literally drag to the Hokage tower last time we had to write up reports on the chunin exams? I would've thought you'd do anything to get out of a little paperwork."

"Who says there's no paperwork in the afterlife? At least in this life I know more or less what to expect." He propped himself up on his arm next to her and leaned in close. She laughed again at the serious look on his face at such an absurd idea.

"Can you imagine! Shinigami bogged down in paperwork. That's rich, Nara. I can't tell if you actually have a sense of humor or if you're just more paranoid than I thought."

Shikamaru himself cracked a smile at this and they began roughhousing on the bed. It had been too long since they had shared a lighthearted moment like this. With the recent Akatsuki attacks everyone had been a little more on edge, and the changing rapport between the two of them since they had started sleeping together had sometimes made for awkward tension between the two of them where there used to just be a constant battle of wits (or mostly a battle of insults, really).

"You know, you should really put in the effort to train more if you're so opposed to trying out the afterlife," she said, straddling him and pinning his arms.

"Oh really?" He shot back, twisting out from underneath her just enough to free his wrists from her grip, "This coming from a shinobi who would pick a fight with a shadow manipulator at dusk?"

Forming a quick hand sign with his newly freed hands, Temari immediately felt herself pinned by his shadows.

"Seems to me like someone needs a remedial course in basic strategy," he smirked, feeling her struggle against his jutsu, though she couldn't budge an inch from where he'd trapped her splayed across the bed. In their tousle, her skirt had ridden all the way up her thigh and her kimono had started to pull loose. He never understood how she (or Ino, or any kunoichi for that matter) managed to fight in a skirt, but for now, he was definitely not complaining.

"You bastard-" Temari started, but was cut off as Shikamaru's lips crashed down onto hers. He released her from the jutsu, and her arms immediately wrapped around him, pulling him closer.

Later, when she slipped away into the shower, he found himself opening her pack, carefully rummaging inside for the bingo book. Pulling it out he opened it delicately to reveal the contents within, not wanting to damage the paper-thin dried blossoms he knew he'd find inside. He knew it was a bad habit of his to look through her things, but something about the book fascinated him and he just couldn't let it go.

It was like a journal she kept, adding a new bloom now and again to the collection, though the memories or associations she had with each new addition remained a mystery to him. He flipped to the middle of the book. He had been through the entire book before at least twice now, from stolen glances over their past few meetings, and along with the newfound knowledge he'd gained from his trips to the flower shop and some reading he'd done in his spare time, he had started at least to understand there was some underlying organization to the whole thing. A Konoha flower would be pressed between the pages of a Konoha missing nin listed in the book, for example. He wondered how many of these nin she had encountered, or killed, even. He knew that chrysanthemums were considered to be a symbol of death in Suna, and there were quite a few scattered throughout the pages. A few were tucked into the book at the page of a nin who had since been confirmed to be eliminated. Some were still of unknown status, at least to the Leaf. Shikamaru made a mental not to look into these further.

Many were placed in the appendices, however, making it unclear if they were linked to a particular individual.

Was there a logic behind where she would place teas and herbs between the pages to dry compared to where she would place a flower? He looked for patterns, for hints at the thoughts or feelings these pages and their contents might evoke for her.

More than anything, he hoped to find fresher additions that had not yet fully dried. Though she would often talk about her life in Suna, she never talked about the missions she went on, and like any shinobi, he knew that missions were a substantial part of her life. Any new plants he found were hints at where she might have traveled recently, the places she'd seen.

He felt his heart skip a beat when he found an Iris of just the variety that Ino had showed him in the shop. It was parched, it's color faded, but leaning in to breathe in its scent, he could still detect hints of its characteristic fragrance. He almost didn't notice the sound of the shower being shut off, as he was so engrossed in his new discovery. He folded closed the book with uncharacteristic speed, and had stowed it back in her bag before the door of the bathroom opened and Temari appeared, wearing an oversized t-shirt of his, her hair wrapped up in a towel. He almost teased her about how she should bring her own pajamas instead of stealing his clothing but kept it to himself. He liked the idea of her in his clothes (in his bed, in his arms) and honestly didn't want to discourage her.


	4. Suspicion

The next time Temari came to Leaf was for the chunin exams. He had run into her in Suna a few weeks before, but she never came to him when he was staying there, and even if he hadn't been one of the laziest ninja around, he would've had to be an idiot to try sneaking into the Kazekage's compound for a late night rendezvous with his daughter. So by the time the chunin exams rolled around, it had been over a month since they'd really seen each other.

She arrived at the gate in the late afternoon walking side by side with her two brothers at the front of the large group of Sand-nin who had come for the exam. The three were a sight to behold—they were well known as the strongest nin of their generation from their village, and the strength and confidence they projected as they walked reflected their reputations. Shikamaru let the smallest of smiles grace his lips as they approached. Temari walked with confidence like her brothers to be sure, but her confidence had a different character. She moved with something more than that, something sensual but deadly. The sway of her hips just pronounced enough to make you start to forget that she could kill you in an instant. It made his mouth go dry to see her like that, in her element, leading at the head of the approaching group of Sand-nin. She was a natural born leader, in battle and in politics, which she had proven time and again. Seeing her walk the way she did, her weapon at her back and her allies at her side and that smirk on her face, she was almost too terrifyingly strong to be sensual. Almost.

Most of their party was made up of wide-eyed genin, though of course their jonin sensei had come along as well, not to mention all three of the Kazekage's children, who he had sent in his stead. Shikamaru, as Konoha's coordinator of the exams, was there to greet them at the gates, flanked by Ibiki, and Kakashi, who, though he refused to take on another team of genin after team seven, had agreed to serve as an examiner this time around. When Tsunade had first suggested Kakashi as an examiner, Shikamaru had been surprised. Upon further reflection on how much Kakashi had messed around with team seven, basically immediately thrown the team into the deep end when they were starting out, it made sense that the silver haired jonin would take another opportunity to concoct and carry out what was in some ways could be viewed as an extended and exceptionally cruel prank on a new group of youngsters.

Shikamaru greeted the three siblings. Gaara stood arms crossed and face impassive, but Kankuro was giving him the death glare of all death glares. Shikamaru couldn't care less though. The Sabaku siblings may have intimidated him when he was younger, but he'd grown up in a lot of ways since they had first met at the chunin exams years ago. He'd seen too much in the field to let a dirty look get to him.

Thanks to Ino, there wasn't a soul in Konoha that didn't know about him and Temari. In fact, there were quite a few people under the impression that they were already engaged, or that she was pregnant or that they had eloped and were waiting for the exams to publicly announce their undying love. Leave it to the rumor mill. And from the way that Kankuro was staring him down, he had the feeling that somehow the "news" had made its way all the way back to Suna in some form or another.

It's not as though they were close, but Shikamaru had had a few too many drinks with Kankuro enough times to know that he would do anything to make his sister happy, and that though the protective-brother-posturing was inevitable, that as long as he and Temari were getting along he'd be in the clear.

Temari stood next to her brothers with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Nara-san," she greeted him with a slight bow, "thank you for the courtesy of welcoming us to your village. We look forward to successfully cooperating with you in the exams."

It would've been a normal enough interaction in a diplomatic setting, but to anyone who knew anything about Temari and Shikamaru's working relationship—basically that they had been bickering and insulting each other non-stop since before they hit puberty—it was so overly formal it was downright laughable. Shikamaru heard Genma, who was sitting at his post at the gate, snicker which in turn deepened Kankuro's scowl even further. Shikamaru was sure he was about to get an earful form the sand-nin, when Temari threw her arms around her brother's shoulders and exclaimed, "Let's head to our lodgings already! These kids are exhausted, it's their first trek to Konoha for a lot of them."

And with that they parted ways. Shikamaru wondered if she would come to his room that night. She almost always traveled to Konoha alone, so she never had to worry about sneaking away from her brothers.

0

He had sat for a long time in his apartment, contemplating his window. It was summer and plenty of the village nin he knew had set up astoundingly complicated traps that would let in an evening breeze but nothing more so that they could sleep safely with their windows open. He had never been much for traps, even before Temari had started climbing in his window at night, figuring that if there ever was an attack, he wasn't important enough to be targeted before the village alarm system started blaring.

No traps and window open was a bit much even for him though, which is why he found himself sitting out on the fire escape in the balmy evening, smoking his second cigarette since the sun had set. Sleeping in the heat was troublesome, but locking her out was even more troublesome, so he figured the least he could do was to delay the decision a while longer and maybe she would show up.

He wondered if she had ever actually used the door to his apartment and found that he couldn't remember a single time when that would've been the case. So much for the sappy, romantic rumors flying around. They weren't dating, really. They ate meals together, sure, but it's not like they did it in a couple-y way. Publicly, nothing much had changed between them. When she was in town, they would often work together, so they would often eat at Ichiraku in the evening, then they'd go their separate ways. He would go to play shogi or cloud watch before the light faded, and she would go off to do whatever it was that she did in Konoha when he wasn't around, mostly train he supposed, though he knew she would sometimes visit the Yamanaka flower shop and even occasionally socialize with the kunoichi of the rookie nine. It was only later that she would slip into his apartment, almost as if that part of their relationship was bound to the confines of his small apartment, under the night sky.

He put out the butt of the cigarette on the railing and sighed, taking in one last moment of the gentle wind moving the heavy summer air.

He slipped back inside, stripping off his shirt before moving to close the window.

He woke at the first light to an empty bed, sheets damp with sweat.

0

"The Kazekage was thrilled, of course, when he heard that one of his top jonin has been consorting with an advisor to the Hokage."

Temari's voice was dripping with her dry sarcasm. Their spot in the stands was far enough away from the field to avoid the spectators that had packed in to the better seats to watch the third exams, but still close enough for anyone with a sharp eye or some shinobi training to easily what was going on in the match below. They watched as a Sand genin released a controlled burst of wind that would've completely knocked out his opponent if not for a well-timed substitution jutsu. Not for the first time, he wondered if Temari had trained any of the genin in the exams. He knew that given the travel-heavy schedule and diplomatic responsibilities her father had laden her with, she would be unable to take her own team, but he knew how deeply she cared about the future of her village, and was sure that she would be an excellent teacher.

"Is that so?" Shikamaru responded, after cheers from the crowd died down. Shikamaru looked over at her and found that her eyes were locked on the field.

"So thrilled, in fact, that he basically accused me of treason outright."

Temari said it with a laugh, in a lighthearted tone, but there was no mirth in her eyes. Her expression was stone cold and he felt his heart drop. Kankuro's death glare he was not afraid of, but he knew Temari and she wouldn't be bringing this up if it wasn't something she was legitimately worried about. Shikamaru turned his gaze back to the field, which had just flared up with a sloppy attempt at a fire jutsu.

"Hm, I hadn't heard that version of the story. I mean, I had heard the version where we were engaged, and the one where you're betrothed to the Wind Daimyo's son but we already eloped, but I hadn't heard the one where you're divulging state secrets to me." Not for the first time, Shikamaru felt a pang of guilt for his perusals of her bingo book. He didn't let on though. He had enough training on resistance to interrogations to allow even a shadow of emotional reaction seep into his facial expression or body language.

"It's a good angle though, I'll be sure to mention it to Ino next time I see her," Shikamaru said in a low deadpan.

Shikamaru barely had time to think before he felt her folded fan crash against the back of his skull. He saw stars and buckled forward, catching himself on the railing in front of him, head bowed as the pain throbbed through his skull. She had moved so fast that any civilian that may have seen them across the stadium would have missed it entirely, but then slowly and deliberately she leaned over him.

"You ever joke about that again and I'll castrate you before you can even form the first seal for your pathetic jutsu," she bit out in a hushed but deadly tone, and he could feel her Kunai pressed against his back, just hard enough for him to feel it's edge, before she sheathed it and stormed away, back towards the box in the stands where the Suna jonin were gathered to watch the matches.

"Shikamaru-san, is everything alright?" He saw the cloaked and masked figure arrive out of his peripheral vision, which was still swimming as his head throbbed.

"Thank you, Anbu-san, I'm fine," he gingerly touched the back of his head where she'd clocked him, he was going to have a nasty bump, "You know Temari, always looking for an opportunity to convince me I need to train more."

"Hm," the Anbu hummed in acknowledgement, not asking any follow-up questions but not leaving the box either. After a few moments when he had regained his bearings he took a closer look at the Anbu—though he was masked the only Konoha nin he knew with hair that long was Neji. Neji was a good friend and a good ninja. He was loyal to a fault, and though he had begun to forgive his clan for the cursed seal they had place upon him as a child, he still had never been able to fully forgive Gaara for what he had done to Lee. He had always been wary of the Sand siblings, and his quick appearance at Temari's outburst made Shikamaru wonder just how closely of an eye on them he had been keeping, and for how long. Neji's dedication to his role as a shinobi of the village was beyond admirable, but his tendancy to hold grudges and his ability to blindly follow orders had always put Shikamaru on edge.

0

Alrighty, well that's as much as I have drafted for now. If you've read this far, give me a shout in the reviews. I could use a kick in the ass to draft more.


	5. Mission

Shikamaru lay in a clearing of the Nara forest, staring up at the wisps of cloud drifting across the sky. He tried to relax and focus his mind. He had been distracted by the annoyance he felt toward Ino, and now Neji as well.

The chunin exams had carried on for a few days after his encounter with Temari in the stadium, and the delegations from Suna and the other villages had departed shortly thereafter. Temari had not come to him once throughout the duration of the visit. Shikamaru had of course seen her in the stadium in the final matches of the tournament, but her gaze would pass over him without coming into focus as if she was erasing him from her field of sight.

On the other hand, Neji's gaze seemed incessantly fixed on Temari. Shikamaru picked out the distinctive ANBU perched on the upper balcony of the stadium, always with Temari in his sights. While most leaf nin would've written off Temari's outburst as a lover's spat (in fact, he was sure they would find it quite amusing), Neji always took everything far too seriously. It was unfortunate that Neji was the one to witness it, he thought to himself. Shikamaru just hoped that he hadn't reported it to a superior officer.

Shikamaru was sure that Temari was well aware of the ANBU's watchful eye, and that it would only adding to her anxiety about public perceptions—among Leaf and Sand nin alike—about her relationship with him.

He let out an irritated sigh. He knew that Ino had had no ill intentions. He was sure that she didn't realize the extent of the impact of the rumors on his and Temari's relationship. Konoha was different than Suna, both culturally and politically. Of course Suna would be more inclined to view an inter-village relationship as a security threat, while Konoha was more likely to view it as a sign of trust and amicable village relations.

Shikamaru just hoped that Ino's meddling and Neji's surveillance hadn't permanently deterred Temari. It was not unusual to go weeks, or even months without seeing her, but he was getting anxious. As much as he hated to admit it, he could feel his chest tighten at the thought of their relationship ending. Of course they would continue see each other for the foreseeable future, given their diplomatic roles. But it would be more painful to be subjected to the indifference and withdrawal that she had exhibited at the end of the chunin exams than it would be to never see her again.

He and Temari had never talked about what they were to each other. It was so cliché, Shikamaru thought to himself, that it was only now, at the moment he realized that he might really lose her, that he was finally faced with how much she meant to him, how much he was attached to her.

Their relationship had had no clear beginning, and Shikamaru sometimes wondered how it would end. He tried not to think about it, focusing on the present, never daring to plan for the future. This was not an uncommon attitude among ninja for managing interpersonal relationships. The mortality rate in their line of work was just too high. Setting expectations for the future made the seemingly inevitable loss even harder.

Shikamaru was never quite sure when she would be back in town, but he had come to rely on the idea that she would always come to him when the opportunity presented itself. Occasionally she would come on a scheduled diplomatic visit, but mostly she would slip into the village en route to and from missions. He figured that she probably didn't check in at the gate on most occasions, and it had occurred to him more than once that it didn't necessarily speak well to village security that she came and went under cover of night so regularly.

He sighed and got up from the grass as he felt a familiar chakra signature approaching. No doubt Ino come to scold him for not showing up at their team meeting. The last thing he needed was for her to see him sulking. As much as he hated to admit it, she'd see right through him and know exactly what he was upset about. As frustrating as she could be, they had a deep friendship and bond of trust, and she was undeniably good at her job. She was sharp and insightful, good at understanding people and getting into their heads (sometimes quite literally, given the family jutsu). She had quickly risen in leadership in the intelligence division, and he had no doubt that she would one day take over for her father.

Shikamaru made his way towards the Hokage tower where he figured he should finally get to the work that he had been putting off.

00

Shikamaru was jolted awake by the sound of his window flying open. The heavy rain blew in through the open window. Temari nearly collapsed as she came through the window, clutching the window frame, in an attempt to hold herself up.

Without thinking Shikamaru jumped up, supporting her weight and guiding her over to sit on the edge of the bed. As soon as he looped his arm around her, he felt her slump against him.

"Jesus, Temari, what happened?" Shikamaru asked, though not expecting a response. It had been a long time since she had shown up to his apartment so beat up.

Kneeling in front of her he looked her over, assessing the situation. She was drenched. Her left sleeve was completely ripped off, and he could see it had been tied around her thigh as a makeshift bandage. She was clutching her side, most likely attempting to apply pressure to a second wound.

"We need to clean these and apply new bandages," Shikamaru said. Temari was still non-responsive.

Like all ninja, Shikamaru had basic training in field medicine. He was no medic, but he had plenty of experience managing injuries on the fly during missions. He ran to grab the kit of basic medical supplies he kept, and then began to remove the makeshift bandage on her leg. He could feel her tense up as he cleaned the wound. It would be so much better if Sakura or Ino could handle this. He knew that either kunoichi would be there in a flash if called on, but he was sure that Temari would protest.

He worked in silence, cleaning her up as best he could.

Once the wounds were cleaned and bandaged, he stripped her of her drenched clothing, pulled a clean shirt over her head, and lay her down. He just hoped that he hadn't missed anything.

He pushed the hair away from her face gently, asking gently, "Is anyone following you?" As much as he respected her privacy, he needed to know if she—or Konoha—were under continued threat.

Temari shook her head.

"They're all dead."

Shikamaru climbed into the bed next to her and held her in his arms. She pressed her face into the crook of his neck.

Shikamaru lay awake monitoring Temari's pulse and breathing, watching her as she slept. He wondered if she ever had nightmares. For the moment, at least, she slept soundly.

As the sky began to lighten, he slipped into a light sleep himself, holding her tightly in his arms.

00

Shikamaru awoke to the morning light, feeling Temari stir in his arms. What time was it? Based on how far the light had crept into the room, it was still early in the morning. When he felt Temari move to get out of the bed, he tightened his grip around her waist.

"You need to rest," he mumbled, still foggy from sleep.

"I'm fine," Temari responded.

"Just stay a little while. The more you rest, the faster you can travel on your way home," Shikamaru said.

"Please?" he added after a moment. He wanted to tell her that he had missed her. He hoped that she would stay.

Temari sighed, and reluctantly relaxed back into his arms. She was too tired to fight him on this, and though she wouldn't admit it, she knew that he was right. She had carried out her mission in good time, and was not expected back for a few days anyway.

It was unusual for her to still be in bed at this time. She was by nature an early riser. The heat of the desert made the early morning hours the most pleasant time of day. The range of temperature in the desert was quite pronounced, with scorching days and frigid nights. The sunrise, when the chill was just dissipating into a still pleasant, growing warmth was the time the city bustled most with life.

Konoha's mild climate was always a treat, and felt somewhat exotic to her. It was part of why she enjoyed her time there so much. The city was so green, the plant life diverse and healthy. She hated the humidity of the summer months however, finding it more oppressive than the dry heat of her home.

Shikamaru was unsurprised when he felt her breath drop back into the steady rhythm of sleep. She would never admit to any weakness, but anyone would be exhausted after what was clearly a hard-won fight. Sometimes the most challenging part of a mission was just getting to a safe place after a fight before collapsing of exhaustion in unfriendly territory.

He snuck out of the bed, careful not to wake her. His foot caught on the pile of torn clothing on the floor, still damp from the night's rain. He gathered it and placed it on the windowsill to dry in the morning sun.

He placed her pack on the chair next to his bed. Her light pack spoke to the brief nature of the mission. Some sort of hit job, maybe.

He pulled out the familiar book, flipping through a few pages. He paused when he found a flower that he recognized. This flower he recognized not from the Yamanaka flower shop but from a mission in the northwestern region of the Fire country when he was a chunin. He had a sharp memory for detail, and these had been particularly memorable because his teammates had teased him mercilessly after a village girl had given Shikamaru a bunch of flowers to thank him after they'd captured the petty thief that had plagued the town. He touched the petals gently. It was clearly a fresh addition. He examined a few more pages before closing the book entirely, and placing it back in the pack.

He wondered what had brought her to that region of the country. It was far from the route between to Suna from Konoha. Really, it was out of the way from any thoroughfare. She must have deliberately stopped there, not just passed through in transit to another location.

Temari was still asleep when Shikamaru left to meet Choji for a training session. He paused before leaving the apartment looking at Temari as she slept. He was almost certain that she'd be gone by the time he got back to the apartment.

00

Temari slept almost to noon. She woke up to an empty apartment. Sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed she looked around, getting her bearings. She found her clothing, mostly dry, on the windowsill.

She felt like she had a really bad hangover, not to mention that her memory of how she had gotten here was spotty at best. She winced a bit as she stood up, stumbling over to the kitchen. She chugged two glasses of water and proceeded to raid the fridge.

She appreciated that Shikamaru had taken care of her. It wasn't the first time she'd turned to him in a time of vulnerability, though it still embarrassed her to rely on him.

She went back to the bedroom to put on her clothes. She was plenty used to wearing grimy clothing on missions. She might pick up something in another village on her way back home, but preferred to buy clothing in Wind country whenever possible. As she was getting dressed she spotted a notepad on his desk. She ripped out a page, scrawling a quick note.

'Thank you,' she wrote, and then crumpled up the paper. This was stupid.

After a pause, she took a second sheet of paper.

'See you next time." She left the note on the bed.

She grabbed her pack and jumped out the window, leaving the village at top speed.

00

Despite her injuries, Temari had barely taken time to rest and convalesce before getting back to her regular training regimen.

She had been back for about a week when she was called into the Kazekage's office for a mission assignment.

Her father had been exceptionally pleased with the results of her work in Iwa. Hurricanes were not unheard of during the rainy season, but every storm that hit had been far worse than forecasted. Reports indicated extensive damage to infrastructure due to high winds, sometimes exceeding 130 miles per hour. The winds had resulted in increased storm surges, with powerful waves battering the coastline and causing massive flooding.

With Iwa's resources diverted to rebuilding their infrastructure and away from international commerce, Suna's economy had seen a formidable boost. All according to plan. Based on their intelligence on the matter, no one suspected foul play. It was, after all, a natural disaster.

Perhaps it was good that she hadn't been on any high-profile missions recently. She had grown a lot, and no one, not even her own brothers, was aware of the extent of the damage she could cause with a swing of her tessen.

Since the completion of that mission, she had mostly been back to working on missions more suited to someone of her rank—chasing down missing nin, following up on Akatsuki leads, leading teams.

But Temari had been uneasy recently. The Kazekage had also sent her on a series of missions in the borderlands of Fire country and Wind country. They were nothing special, and honestly should've been assigned to someone below her rank. She didn't like the feeling of scoping out the Fire country's northwestern region, which seemed to be the true purpose of the missions.

The two nations had been allied for many years now, but she knew that the Kazekage was devoted to improving the country's prestige and power at all costs. A growing feeling deep in her gut told her that the Kazekage would use all methods available to him to be in a position of dominance over the Fire nation.

It had not escaped her that during the dry season, there were often wildfires in Hi no Kuni. Fire country indeed. In battle, wind users were weak against fire users, but there's nothing like a strong, dry wind to make wildfire spread. Her specialty. It would be too easy to fan the flames to life.

It made her sick. The Fire was their closest ally. Temari would do anything for her country, but it would hurt her deeply to launch a covert assault on the Fire country.

The only people outside of Suna that she would call her friends, that she trusted, were Konoha nin.

The success of the mission in Iwa had no doubt emboldened her father, but she knew Konoha nin very well. They were unlikely to let an extreme fire season pass without some sort of investigation, and she wasn't sure she how much scrutiny the fire damage could withstand before they began to suspect that the disaster was not so natural after all.

Her stomach sank further. Outright war with Konoha was a nightmare scenario.

Temari had always hoped to rise in the leadership of her village, but as it stood, she was in no position to question the Kazekage's decisions. If the order came, she would have no choice but to obey.

She tried not to think of Shikamaru. They had grown closer than she cared to admit. She had fought by his side in battle and, and never wanted to face him head on.

They had been… companions… for years now. They had seen each other grow up, from genin to jonin, and their relationship had grown with them. While someone unfamiliar with the two would most likely think they hated each other given their constant back and forth of insults, they both enjoyed the verbal sparring. They were friends and colleagues in public, but privately they were something else entirely. Temari had had other partners, but there was something about Shikamaru that was unique. She couldn't deny that they had a strong bond.

Like most shinobi, Temari was emotionally guarded. It took a long time for her to build trust, and her bond with Shikamaru had formed painstakingly over the years. She trusted him as much as she could ever trust anyone outside of her village, but there came a point where the openness between them ended due to on their political allegiances. They withheld themselves from each other.

Arriving at the Kazekage's office, Temari brought herself back to the present moment.

"Temari, how have you found Konoha?" He asked her.

"Uneventful," She responded tersely.

"Well, I have another mission for you," he said, and looking up from the scroll he was examining, he turned to the guards stationed by his desk, "Will you excuse us for a moment?"

As the guards filed out of the room, Temari could tell that this one would be off the books. The guards closed the doors behind them, and the Kazekage held out a scroll to his daughter.

00

That's the tea. Please review! Reviews are the absolute best and motivate me to keep going. I'm curious to hear what you think of the fic.


	6. Smoke

Temari crossed the border at dusk. She had traveled at a slower pace than was the norm for her, though she knew that she was merely putting off the inevitable. Nothing could stop her, not even herself.

She took extra care crossing the borderlands. She knew the fire country well. She was experienced in the art of espionage and stealth. But this wasn't like crossing into Iwa, a foreign land, an abstract target. She was crossing into the homeland of her friends. If anyone saw her, she told herself, she would have to kill them. None of the wandering into town to stay at an inn or shop in the market. There could be no witnesses. She knew that she could be recognized, and though the chance was small, she was unwilling to take that risk.

She set up camp for the evening in the foothills, in the shelter of a thicket. Just across the mountainous pass ahead of her lay her target. Tomorrow.

Her heart was pounding. It was an unusual feeling. As an experienced ninja notorious for her skill in combat, she was so used to being cool and collected in combat. She couldn't even remember a time that she had felt nervous going into battle. If it had ever happened, it had been when she was too young to even remember it. So young. Her father had raised her well, trained her to become what she was today: a loyal fighter for the Wind.

She found a nearby stream to get water and sat with her back against a tree as she ate her rations. She was used to traveling alone, but it felt eerie. The sound of the water flowing, the birds chirping. Usually she would process these sounds as part of the background noise indicating the coast was clear. Listening to birdsong was usually a way to stay alert and on edge. It was always a bad sign when the birds went silent or took flight. Today though, it took on a serene quality to her. It was a really beautiful place, so calm, and she was an intruder.

The wind picked up around her, and the leaves of the trees rustled. It would've been such a peaceful sound except that she knew that these dry late-summer winds would be her tool.

A vine of what looked to her to be morning glories twisted around a nearby tree. Red and white trumpets opened to the sun. She had never seen this variety before. She picked two and, opening up her pack, tucked them in between the pages of her bingo book.

The next day Temari finished the last leg of her journey. Walking through the woods, off of the main road, the dry leaves crunched underfoot. A tinderbox. Reaching the vicinity of a small town, she perched herself high in a tree to scope out the area.

The town was small, but it was at an important crossroads, where the roads towards Konoha from Waterfall and Iron converged into the main northern trade route in the country. There were other ways through the mountain range, but this had always been the most well-trafficked and well-maintained route. An impasse at this juncture would undoubtedly have a severe impact on trade.

She just needed to find a way to spark a fire that would look like an accident. She didn't want to raise suspicion of arson. Taking out her binoculars she looked around the town. Smoke rising from a few chimneys. Vendors cooking in the streets at their food carts. Maybe a kitchen would be the way to go, but she needed it to flare up enough to get out of control before anyone was able to intervene.

She thought of Shikamaru's growing smoking habit. She imagined herself lighting a cigarette and dropping it onto the forest floor, over a bed of pine needles. The image of Shikamaru in her mind was vivid. Lighting up in silence, the orange glow of the tobacco illuminating his features in the dark of the evening, breathing the smoke in deep with that contemplative look on his face. He'd always been a deep thinker, but as he'd risen in the ranks, she could tell that the stress of the job was taking a toll on him. She was never quite sure what was going on behind the concerned eyes and furrowed brow.

Work talk was off-limits between them, for obvious reasons. (With the somewhat rare exception of when they were jointly working on diplomatic issues.) But in the moments when his stress was most palpable, she wished she could know enough to offer him some sort of meaningful comfort that went beyond the physical, beyond just trying to push it down and drink and laugh it off together.

As evening fell, she saw a group of traveling merchants setting up camp, sitting around a fire. That would be too easy.

She waited until the sun went down before pulling up the hood of her black cloak to cover her hair and heading in. The camp had quieted, the fire burned down, but the embers were still hot. Easy to fan until they resparked. With a concentrated burst of air, she gently kicked the embers up in the wind.

Temari breathed deeply as she gathered her chakra. Taking one final moment to brace herself, she snapped open her tessen, and with a gust of air the flames burst into life.

She knew that this was a deadly combination: the sparks, the dry vegetation, the canvass tents, the wood-frame buildings, the naturally dry winds, her own chakra infused blast of air to feed the flames. But even she was surprised at just how quickly and ferociously the fire spread.

She found herself overwhelmed by the energy given off by the flames, imbued with chakra. She couldn't help but muse to herself that she should pair up with fire users more often. The town alight, people started to run out of the burning buildings, screaming as the structures were engulfed in flames. She continued to stoke the fires. Withdrawing from the town itself, she called up powerful winds with her tessen and unleashed them onto the already growing wildfire, creating a massive whirlwind that picked up the flames and smoke, ripping down the main street of the town and out into the woods beyond. A tornado of fire.

The feeling of power was incredible. But her heart caught in her chest as the screams of the townspeople and travelers rose. They were trying to get out. The road was blocked. The fire was everywhere. Just civilians.

Her work was done. The fire raged all on its own.

She fled into the night, racing at top speed back the direction she had come. South, towards Konoha or towards her home she was not sure. Just anywhere away from here. She outran the flames easily but knew the civilians would not be so lucky. She tried to push it out of her mind.

A few hours later she reached a deep stream. The flames now far behind her, the sound of the conflagration still blared in her mind. She tried to focus on the sound of running water as she dropped her pack on the banks and waded into the water, sinking herself in fully clothed.

Everything on her smelled like smoke. Her hair, her clothing.

Dropping her head underwater she tried to cleanse herself of it. Scrubbing the specks of ash off of her face, trying to wash out her clothing and hair in the cold water. Smoke was stubborn though. The smell clung to her despite her efforts.

Civilians. There was no honor in that, she thought to herself. But it was still a strategic hit, she knew.

She regretted her impulsive plunge as soon as she emerged from the water. The day had been hot, but the dry air retained none of the day's heat and the temperature had dropped. Soaking wet and chilled in the night, she felt she had no option other than to keep moving. She'd get no rest out here anyway.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Shikamaru was somewhat used to Temari showing up unannounced at his window, late at night. It never really felt like a surprise. It was almost a relief to see her. They didn't really stay in touch when they were apart, though he often thought of her. He didn't expect forewarning of when he would see her, and always just hoped that when he opened the window to let her in that she would be uninjured.

He pulled her into a hug instinctively, feeling the dampness of her clothes against him. She seemed almost limp as she embraced him in return, clinging to him. She held herself up firmly on her own feet though, which he hoped was an indication that she was just tired, nothing worse. She was shivering.

He pressed his face in the crook of her neck, she smelled earthy. Like the musk of river water, dust, almost smoky.

He kissed her forehead, then her cheek, then a brief kiss on her lips.

"Shower," he said softly, taking her hand and guiding her towards the bathroom.

He turned up the hot water almost as high as it would go and started to strip off her damp clothing as the water heated up. Every layer that came off he was relieved that it revealed no lacerations or bruises.

"Hey," he said to her, both now standing under the beating water of the shower, looking into her eyes with a small, hopeful smile. He missed the vivacious Temari that used to show up at his apartment more frequently. The norm was becoming quieter. Stubbornly stoic but almost sad.

"Hey," she responded, with a small smile of her own. It was nice to be back here in this safe place, insulated from the outside world, where he knew nothing of what she had done, and was just happy to see her.

She felt herself warm up in the shower. Physically, under the hot water, and mentally, feeling more comfortable and more herself. She remembered a teammate once telling her that you knew when it was true love when you felt able to be your full, authentic self around your partner. She sighed into his kisses and left the day behind her.

Later, as he pulled her close to him as they lay in bed, he breathed in the scent of her hair. Clean but still the faint smell of a campfire clung to it. He always wondered where she came from when she visited, where she was going. He imagined her setting up camp in foreign territory, on her own (he knew she could handle herself but had always thought it strange she was sent on so many solo missions), building a fire and staring into it as the night progressed, waiting for day to break to carry on in her mission.

0o0o0o0o0o

The next morning, he barely woke up to the sound of her bustling around in his room. She was grumbling to herself that her clothing was still damp. She had opened the window and set it out on the sill while, stark naked, she headed into the kitchen. He rolled over onto his back, arm over his eyes to block out the light from the newly opened window. She was a shameless pantry-raider.

"Find anything good?" he called out to her from the bedroom, not yet willing to move.

"Better than rations," she shot back, "Barely though."

She made her way back into the bedroom, sitting on the bed with a box of days-old takeout leftovers.

"Let's go out for breakfast," said Shikamaru, still groggy, eyes still covered, "There's this great spot downtown that has the best coffee. They do a buffet on the weekends. What day is it?"

Temari shot him a look, raising an eyebrow. He clearly was still mostly asleep. There was plenty of speculation about the two of them, and whenever she was officially in town she'd go out for a meal with whoever from the rookie nine were available. But the two of them going out for breakfast together, particularly when she had no real reason to even be in Konoha (and really, in this case, no one should know that she was in the country at all), would be… a lot. Not really in line with what their relationship was.

"Out for breakfast?" she responded quizzically, in a teasing tone, "Nara, what's next? Shall we stroll down the main road holding hands too?"

"Mmhm," he made a noncommittal, response, rolling back onto his stomach, face down into his pillow, but reaching out to place a hand on her thigh. He was so muffled she couldn't tell whether it was an affirmative response or not.

She polished off the rest of the food.

"I shouldn't even be here," she mumbled to herself, before plopping herself back onto the bed next to him.

She had never understood how he could sleep so much. She sort of envied him, he seemed so relaxed. For a moment she closed her eyes and tried to match the speed of his breathing. But her body wasn't cooperating. She sighed to herself.

She nuzzled into him in part to get access to his lips and in part just to wake him up. He groaned at the intrusion.

"Lazy ass," she said to him, "You're so boring sometimes."

She left a few tender kisses on his lips before getting back up and putting on her—still annoyingly damp—clothing.

"I've gotta go," she said in a whisper, placing a final kiss on his cheek.

He pulled his face out of his pillow, turning it to the side so he could watch her leave, hopping out of the window into the morning light.

He didn't want her to go. Wished she would stay. He had meant it about breakfast, though he knew she would say no. He loved the idea of them dating as if they were normal people, if he was being honest with himself. He would sometimes imagine their lives as two civilians from the same country. That was fanciful though. Their work meant the world to both of them. And it had always been at the expense of their relationship with each other.

He knew that his parents had gotten together when his mother had retired. She never made jonin and had taken to the role of wife and mother, though of course retaining the spirit of fire. That was just not a possibility for him and Temari, not in a million years would she set aside her work for a relationship, for family life. Even if they were from the same village.

He didn't like the idea of giving up Temari to seek out something more stable with someone else. Plenty of ninja chose instability. Marriage and kids would be too troublesome anyway. If the two of them carried on this way for the rest of their lives, maybe his life would be simpler for it.

Things with Temari didn't feel simple though. He was getting increasingly emotionally twisted up over it, increasingly tenderhearted for her. He realized that his favorite times with her weren't even about sex anymore. There was something special about her visits when they didn't have sex at all, and they just spent time together calmly, living slowly in the way that Shikamaru was used to. Those rare times when they were able to set aside the frantic urgency of knowing their time together was limited.

The times that he could make himself forget the all too familiar vision of her disappearing out his window.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

o0o0o0o0o0o0

Uh-oh, Sand is really out to fuck shit up! Will they get away with it? Will Temari and Shikamaru ever get to really be together? Stay tuned and please review.

Ah man it's been a long time since I worked on this fic! Feels good to get back into it. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.


End file.
